it's over?

thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. forget the gifts of christmas, screw the easter eggs (i was never allowed to participate anyway), and for heaven's sake get those small chinese children out of those firework making factories! thanksgiving is definately where it's at.

every thanksgiving my family gathers around a couple tables full of gourmet salads, grilled turkey, ham, mashed potatoes with no gravy b/c nobody ever remember to make it and pumkin pies. we delight in each others company, laugh, and one year we even cried b/c my grandpa had recently lost the good fight to cancer.

when this wonderful man we so lovingly called "grandpa hooks" was still alive we would take a thanksgiving day trip to meet my cousins living in New York half-way for an early Christmas celebration. my grandpa started the tradition and he always picked the spot. we did this for years, meeting in such wonderful cities like Clevland, Columbus, and other hot-spots in Ohio (woo hoo!). one year we went to Toronto. These were always great weekends. They saw the coming and going of cousins, the introduction of spouses, and even the birth of new babies.

Here are a few of my favorite Thanksgiving weekend memories:

Cleveland: the city lighting ceremony complete with holiday parade staring Drew Carey. That's right everyone, DREW CAREY. He's right you know, Cleveland Rocks!
During that parade they set off fireworks that skimmed our heads. Someone needed a little more safety training...

Also Cleveland: Is there anything more cool than the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame? Doubtful. Though my uncle Jim beat my four hours of rockin', my family was just about to send out a search and rescue crew to sniff me out with their dogs. Apparently I had strayed from the group and they thought I was lost. Where else to look but in that museum? duh.

Somewhere in Canada: I had just turned 18 that year, legal drinking age in Canada. Because I was SOOOOOOOO cool, I lured my cousin Nathan out to try to find a bar that wouldn't card him. It didn't take much convincing him, but I think our parents outsmarted us...there were no bars within miles of our hotel.

Toronto: Laser Tag in the Needle. I won't mention any names, but one of the newest members of our family at that time let out a whopper. He literally cleared the room of other taggers and left me and my sister gasping for air. luckily we survived only to get our asses kicked by shawn. of course.

Columbus: The family caravan pulled up to the hotel which was surrounded by XXX. We never saw any of said XXXers b/c our parents had us all back in the car with our eyes covered faster than you can even say porn.

Grand Rapids: For some reason we didn't go anywhere this certain year but all of the cousins were in GR together anyway. We all met at Craig's Cruisers and faked a birthday just so that we could get a special room, pizzas, a cake, ten tokens, and two free go-cart rides. We are all college age at this time mind-you. The evening ended with a harsh "warning" from the 16 year-old go-cart operator to "slow down" and "stop crashing into other people!"

Somewhere in middle America: The Wheels Inn. A brilliant combination of casino, bowling alley, indoor water-park with arcade. The place was nuts, swarming with the pounding of about a bazillion small childrens' feet at all hours of the day, the ding ding ding of machines, and the screams of those daring the pool and waterslide. we didn't use many of the facilites there out of fear of hearing loss, but we did manage to have one awesome game of walleyball. At the dirty bingo gift exchange that year I won a James Taylor cd. That's right...James Taylor.

We don't take those thanksgiving trips anymore. there are too many small children involved and some of the cousins have since moved out west leaving the rest of us to drool in their wake. the man who organized the trips has since past on to better things. and you can only go to cleveland so many times before it stops rockin'.
-SN